Showcases the writing by offenders, secure patients and detainees from the 2014 Koestler Awards, exhibited at the Southbank Centre.

Every year around 85,000 people are incarcerated in the UK. About the same number are released. That’s roughly 232 people entering and leaving secure settings every day. During the exhibition that’s one person every 2 minutes and 32 seconds. Throughout the installation’s life strong lights switched on and off every 2 minutes and 32 seconds highlighting the rate at which people are jailed and released.

Half the writing was only visible when the room was plunged into darkness, glowing on the walls. When the lights came on the luminescent writing disappeared, disrupting the viewer and dictating when and what can be read.

The alternating light and dark also alluded to the secure settings that much of the work had been produced in, whilst at the same time acting as a symbol for release and life beyond the prison walls.